The present invention relates to knitting machines, in particular flat knitting machines.
Knitting machines with holding down plates arranged between the needles are known. With the assistance of the holding down plates, a knitting without the participation of a knitting pulling out device under the comb gap is possible. The holding down plate has an operational part with edges and projections extending in a loop formation region. The operational part can be turned between an opening and closing position. Such a holding plates are disclosed for example in the German patent document DE 36 09 539 C2 and DE 39 35 763 C2. The known holding down plates are guided in plate beds arranged above the needle beds. Cam parts slide along the upper surface of the plate beds and move the holding down plates to their opening and closing position. The plate beds however are arranged on the comb gap relatively tightly so that they affect the visibility of the knitting process as well as manual engagement in the comb gap. For this reason, holding down plates have been proposed which are subdivided into two elements including an operational part which performs the turning movement and a linearly moveable shaft part. Both parts are pivotally connected with one another. Thereby the linear movement of the driven shaft part can be converted into the required turning movement of the operational part between the opening and closing positions of the plate. Such plates are presented for example in the patent documents FR 1 207 319 and EP 0 567 282. The advantages of the two-part holding down plates, is that the control of the shaft part can be performed in a single withdrawal from the comb gap. However, these holding down plates naturally have a more expensive construction than one-piece plates.